Hollywood, la série de l'été

In 1976 I was running the arts desk at TF1. For the summer, the eight o'clock news treated itself to a serial that made a change from the usual headlines: Hollywood. I left for California. The idea was simple: reports of about four minutes each, and one encounter every time.

Linda Blair, the possessed child of "The Exorcist", answered my questions while out jogging: she was shooting the sequel. On 14 August I was on the set of "Viva Knievel!", where Gene Kelly played a mechanic alongside the stuntman Evel Knievel. The dancer from "Singin' in the Rain" pulled faces in close-up for my camera. On the 16th came the fourth instalment: Charlton Heston talked to me about "Midway". He began in French, then carried on in English.

A gallery of screen legends

The INA has kept those instalments. My own archives hold the traces of the other encounters of that trip: Paul Newman, Warren Beatty, Sydney Pollack, John Frankenheimer, the producer Robert Evans, Ursula Andress, Michael York. And even a photograph of me dressed as a cowboy.

The series belonged to a year devoted to show business. In February I interviewed Gene Wilder on Michel Drucker's Sunday programme, "Les rendez-vous du dimanche", and the two of us ended up sketching a dance step together. In May I presented the films showing at the Cannes Festival. In September I followed Johnny Hallyday's rehearsals before his Palais des Sports show. A few months later TF1 sent me to Rome. A change of scenery.